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But at the turn of the millennium mobile gaming was limited to pre-loaded titles like Snake and the embryonic Java (J2ME) download scene.Nintendo was the undisputed king of the mobile scene and had fended off competition from numerous pretenders over the years, many of which were technologically superior to the Game Boy.It had a screen that was taller than it was wide, with a D-Pad and quick keys on the left, along with a numeric keypad to the right.It was a weird hybrid, with design choices that reflected attempts to appeal to two audiences.Whereas now we consider portable gaming to be synonymous with smartphones, N-Gage was a groundbreaking idea.Early reviewers noted that the use of the keypad as ‘face’ buttons made some games a little odd to play – most notably a port of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, which requires combos to be executed with perfect timing.

Reports of Razer working on a gaming smartphone have been circulating since early summer.Now it seems those rumors have a little more meat.Min-Liang Tan, CEO and co-founder of Razer, avoided using the word "smartphone" but did confirm in an interview with CNBC that the company is developing a mobile gaming device.“One of the most hotly rumored things about Razer is that we're coming up with a mobile device,” said the exec.“And I can say that we are coming up with a mobile device specifically geared toward gamers and entertainment.”Tan also stated that they are aiming for a 2017 release.

This seems like a familiar place, doesn’t it?We’ve heard whispers and murmurs from the rumor mill and Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan himself that the company has plans for the mobile gaming market.In the interview, Tan confirmed that the device will focus on gaming and entertainment.Based on the words Tan chose, he certainly knows what the device could end up looking like and what it could exactly do in terms of functionality, but did not say so in the interview.Tan chose his words carefully as to when the device might be available for a good reason.Later on in the interview, Tan discussed Razer’s plans to go public sometime later this year, with the CEO saying that, “Having that war chest from the IPO would allow us to [invest in R] and much more.

Or maybe a tablet with removable gamepads kind of like a Nintendo Switch?No one really knows, but Razer has been rumoured to be working on a mobile gaming gaming device for quite some time now, and according to a new interview between CNBC and Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan, it seems like that might actually happen.In addition to its range of gaming PCs and peripherals, Razer has become known for its far out gaming concepts such as the Project Valerie triple-screen laptop, the Project Christine modular PC, and Project Fiona gaming tablet.But none of those concepts ever made it to retail, which is a big reason why all the whispers about a rumoured Razer mobile gaming device were so hard to believe.Rumours hit a fever pitch in January when Razer bought the Nextbit Robin smartphone brand.If you look at Razer’s portfolio, a dedicated gaming device makes a lot of sense.

Chartboost has created marketing tools for mobile game developers since 2011, and today it is launching its Chartboost Exchange, giving developers and brand advertisers access to new kinds of automated advertising tools.San Francisco-based Chartboost is opening programmatic access to its in-app global gaming inventory, meaning brand advertisers can place automated ads that reach Chartboost’s mobile gaming audience through demand partners Aarki, Index Exchange, and Rubicon Project.The advertisers bid to show their ads to users in real-time, resulting in the best ad rate for the app developer.“Game developers should care because it impacts their revenue: overall, they’ll have an opportunity to make more with Chartboost Exchange,” said Maria Alegre, CEO of Chartboost, in an email to GamesBeat.“Programmatic changes how the money flows, or more specifically, through what kind of buyers does it flow.Game developers will have to evaluate their ad tech partners thinking about who can empower them with the right tools in the new programmatic world.

English Premier League football team Everton FC have secured their first ever sleeve sponsor in the form of mobile gaming giant Rovio.The multi-year deal will see the Angry Birds logo appear on the team’s kit sleeve, debuting against Manchester United on Sunday 17 September.This season the ability to embrace a sleeve sponsor opened up new financial avenues for clubs and many have taken it on board.Publicising the partnership is a short-animated film featuring Red, the Angry Bird’s protagonist signing for the Blues at the Club’s USM Finch Farm training ground.The content is a nod to the insane player signing craze that has swept the sport this summer (a trend which Everton has previously talked to The Drum about here).Alan McTavish, head of commercial at Everton, said “Rovio Entertainment recognise the global reach that Everton can deliver through its international fanbase and the global exposure of the Premier League.

Rovio Entertainment Oy, the company behind the “Angry Birds” mobile gaming franchise, confirmed Friday the pricing for its initial public offering, which will value the company at about $1 billion.The Finnish company said it would offer shares within a range of €10.25 ($12.22) to €11.50, giving it a market capitalization of between €802 million and €896 million.When the company announced plans to float earlier this month, shareholders hoped the IPO would value the company at about €2 billion, people familiar with the matter said at the time.The IPO will raise gross proceeds of about €30 million and allow existing shareholders, including majority owner Kaj Hed, the uncle of Rovio co-founder Niklas Hed, to sell shares.Rovio, which has videogame and brand licensing, says the listing will help it pursue its growth strategy, including through acquisitions, and gain more flexibility to remunerate its employees.It expects to begin trading on the Nasdaq NDAQ 0.46% Helsinki pre-list on September 29 and on the official list around October 3, under the code ROVIO.

The company said it will issue $36 million worth of new stock at a price range between $10.23 per share and $13.72 per share.Rovio has said it plans to use the money to expand its mobile gaming business and make acquisitions, though it did not specify exactly how many new shares it would make available.The biggest winner in the deal will be Kaj Hed, the company’s former chairman and owner of reportedly 69 percent of the company via his investment vehicle, Trema International Holdings.In the filing today, Rovio noted that Trema will sell 18.36 million shares, which could be worth $250 million if the IPO prices at the high end of the range.After the IPO, Trema will still hold 36.6 percent of the company’s stock.Rovio also said all shareholders combined, which include such firms as Atomico and Accel Partners as well as Trema, would sell 34.3 million shares.

Above: Robot Shuttle, a driver-less, self driving bus, developed by Japan's internet commerce and mobile games provider DeNA Co., drives past between rice stalk during an experimental trial with a self-driving bus in a community in Nishikata town, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan(Reuters) — As the annual rice harvest begins this month in the Japanese town of Nishikata, the combines that usually putter along the sleepy roads lining its rice fields are giving way to a vehicle residents have never before seen, a driverless shuttle bus.Japan is starting to experiment with self-driving buses in rural communities such as Nishikata, 115 km (71 miles) north of the capital, Tokyo, where elderly residents struggle with fewer bus and taxi services as the population ages and shrinks.The swift advance of autonomous driving technology is prompting cities such as Paris and Singapore to experiment with such services, which could prove crucial in Japan, where populations are not only greying, but declining, in rural areas.Japan could launch self-driving services for remote communities by 2020, if the trials begun this month prove successful.The government plans to turn highway rest stops into hubs from which to ferry the elderly to medical, retail and banking services.“Smaller towns in Japan are greying even faster than cities, and there are just not enough workers to operate buses and taxis,” said Hiroshi Nakajima of mobile gaming software maker DeNA, which has branched into automotive software.

London-based Bossa Studios announced that it has raised $8.05 million in venture funding as it proceeds with the launch of its upcoming massive simulation game Worlds Adrift.European venture investor Atomico led the investment, with participation from existing investor London Venture Partners.Atomico cofounder and partner Mattias Ljungman and executive-in-residence Alexis Bonte, will both join Bossa’s board of directors.Henrique Olifiers, CEO of Bossa Studios, said in an interview that the money will be used to recruit top talent to work on technologies such as artificial intelligence, user-generated content, and open development.The company invited the players into the world to help craft the islands across a 2,000-square-kilometer virtual space, he said.“While mobile gaming has enjoyed a meteoric rise, we’re now also seeing a renaissance in groundbreaking PC gaming, and in particular in independent PC games studios.

Rovio Entertainment, the Finnish company behind the wildly successful Angry Birds franchise, said on Tuesday that it is moving forward with its initial public offering in Helsinki.Better late than never, eh?Angry Birds is one of the most popular mobile gaming franchises ever conceived.Originally released in December 2009 for iOS, the game tasks players with flinging birds at pigs that have stolen their eggs.The puzzle / shooter / strategy game was an immediate hit and has spawned a number of sequels as well as merchandise, toys and even a movie.Rovio reached its pinnacle years ago and was largely expected to go public in the 2012 time frame.

Capping what appears to be a remarkable turnaround, Finland’s Rovio announced today that it has filed for an initial public offering of stock to expand its mobile gaming business and make acquisitions.In addition, some current shareholders will be allowed to sell stock in the offering to recoup some of their investment.The financial disclosure form released by Rovio today indicates that the company saw revenues almost double the first six months of 2017, compared to the same period in 2016.It also notes that in 2016, revenue jumped more than 30 percent over 2015.Thanks to the worldwide sensation of Angry Birds, Rovio has become one of the hottest gaming properties on the planet.But the ability to milk that hit seemed to hit a wall in 2014.

When it comes to mobile gaming, immersion isn’t usually high on the list of priorities—it’s pretty hard to lose yourself in a 4.7-inch screen, no matter how engaging the story is.And that’s why games that are able to transport you to another world—or rather, multiple other worlds—are so impressive.Your character, the titular Old Man, stands at the top of a rickety wooden staircase, staring off into the clouds.A bicycle messenger cycles up the hill, stops near the outhouse, and hands the Old Man a plain brown envelope.Old Man’s Journey is a point-and-click adventure game and an environmental puzzler, but it’s not difficult—the point of the game is to explore and immerse yourself in the colorful, hand-drawn world and thoughtful narrative, not get stuck trying to advance.It’s short, sweet, and the ending is probably easy to predict…but the experience is definitely worth the $5 premium price tag.

A capable gaming machine at a price that's approachable for most gamers' wallets, with inoffensive styling and a good-enough GPU.Mobile gaming is a serious business, and one which commands some serious hardware, and you're spoiled for choice if you want an angular, brutish gaming laptop, with the likes of the Alienware 15 and the HP Omen X serving the mass market well with their pointy edges.Meanwhile, niche manufacturers like MSI or Asus are free to go mad with super-powered (and super-priced) high-end portable PCs.But splurging on those mega-machines isn't something everyone can afford to do, particularly as a heftily-specced desktop PC can usually be had for far less cash.There's a portability premium to be paid for powerful laptops, both in terms of their overall cost and in terms of their pixel-pushing power.It's a legacy we presume it's looking to sidestep with this unit and the rest of its gaming range, as there's not a hint of Medion branding on the case.

Image Credit: SG SHOT / ShutterstockThe global gaming market has been growing by double-digits in recent years, hitting $91 billion in revenues last year.SuperData Research called it the “biggest year in the digital games market and playable media world ever.”While the biggest growth has come from segments like mobile gaming, new technologies have the potential to radically upend the gaming market, providing newfound growth opportunities.Blockchains will disrupt traditional gaming companiesBlockchains are known for their ability to bring decentralization to massive industries, pushing the power from centralized organizations to the consumers themselves.

Ironhide Games, one of the most important names in mobile gaming today, is teasing a new game and we couldn’t be more excited.The developer behind Kingdom Rush, Kingdom Rush Frontiers, and Kingdom Rush Origins has just released a trailer and announced a release date for its newest IP, Iron Marines.Iron Marines is a colorful StarCraft-like game coming to iOS and Android on September 14.Whereas Kingdom Rush is the definition of tower defense games, Iron Marines incorporates more real-time strategy elements that brings the dream of finally getting a similar experience to StarCraft on your phone or tablet.It features a hero system and a tech tree that has over 50 upgrades for your base and units.With this much depth, our hopes are high for a great replayability factor.

Mobile game makers need a plan stronger than “hope.” At TreasureHunt, our Berlin-based interactive entertainment company, we focused heavily on pre-production surveys, integrated marketing with production from the get-go, and optimized slowly to find the sweet spot for our new game Pet Paradise, a bubble shooter mobile game featuring a pet collecting and island discovery meta-game.The results have been remarkable.Launched last month, and featured on both the Apple and Android App Stores, we’ve reached an over 2 percent click through rate with an overall average click to install rate of 68 percent across all social media, a day one retention rate of over 50 percent across all installs, platforms and marketing channels, and enviable engagement rates.Integrating marketing with production since day oneWe integrated marketing with production since day one of making Pet Paradise, so that we have been able to not only optimize targeted marketing, but also the early game metrics resulting from optimizing the game for that target group.We started by running three vastly different types of bubble shooter ads to players of both bubble shooters and match-3 games, and based on click and conversion data, we were able to accurately chose a game direction that would resonate with players.

Nintendo is being sued for copying elements of its Nintendo Switch console, allegedly infringing patents held by Gamevice.Gamevice, which designs clip-on controllers for mobile phones and tablets, has called for a complete sales ban of the popular console, as well as damages.A court filing in California claims Nintendo's sales of its successful Switch console have caused "damage and irreparable injury to Gamevice".Nintendo has reported unprecedented interest in its Switch console.Gamevice's patent for a similar mobile gaming controller was originally granted in September 2015.It released its Wikipad tablet controller in 2013, which allowed tablets to slot into the console.